Tahiti
by Ice Teal
Summary: Rin is a SHIELD Agent, and Sousuke is a Hydra operative. Sousuke is Rin's Mission, but when duty calls for you to make out with the target, you do it. Rin doesn't complain. Sacrifices have to be made, after all. (Agents of SHIELD AU, but prior knowledge of the show is not necessary) (Slight Soukisu but only cuz Kisumi is a hoe for everyone)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Because I wanted spy Sourin.**

 **Written for Sourin Week Day 1 Paper Prompt: Crossover AU with Marvel's Agents of SHIELD**

 **I started this and I tried to make it a oneshot but I can't. So it ended up being an ongoing story. Come find me (ice-teal) on Tumblr!**

* * *

"Target sighted." Rin says quietly into the com. "Male, black hair, athletic build, mid-twenties, can't tell if he's armed."

He's an hour into the operation, looking for the target before Hydra gets to him first. Honestly, he doesn't see the point of putting so many man hours into hunting down one dude who's not even relevant right now, really. Since when were they trying to out-human-resource hydra?

"Yeah yeah, big shot son of a hydra head and all." He mutters to himself, behind his cover newspaper while leaning against a wall.

"I heard that, Rin." Mikoshiba's voice scolds in his ear. "He's young and malleable, and we can goad him onto the right side, or young and dumb, in which case he will be most useful."

"Sometimes, you sound pretty evil, Mikoshiba." Rin remarks, then turns serious when he spots movement out of the corner of his eye. "Target approaching."

The man who was previously facing the street, giving rin mostly a view of his back, turns towards rin, looking slightly irritated. He had just stomped out of the building in a phone call. Rin hurriedly tries to find the most interesting article in the entire paper and skims it, so his act is water tight. Thank god for sunglasses.

"Don't forget to put your glasses up so we can scan him. Otherwise we'd just get a scan of your nasal structure." Mikoshiba reminds him over the com. "That means you have to talk to him, remember?"

"He'd gonna walk right past me." Rin hisses like a ventriloquist.

"Flirt with him, Matsuoka."

"You don't even know if that would work, because he just happens to be one of those people even SHIELD can't find intel on." Rin rolls his eyes.

The line stays silent. Rin studies a few strands of his hair floating in the wind as the tall man approaches. As soon as he's 10 feet away, Rin lets a sheet of newspaper slide out of his grasp, then bats at it like he's trying to catch it, sending it perfectly splayed onto the target's knee. Perfect.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry!" Rin flails at the frowning (slightly intimidating) figure, tucking the remaining papers under his arm to reach for the loose one attacking the other man.

The target – Sousuke Yamazaki – pulls the newspaper off of his pants and doesn't hand it back.

Rin pushes his shades up onto his head, folding back his bangs with it. "Erm, well, I mean I guess I wasn't reading that page anyways, if you wanted to keep it…"

The silence is a bit uncomfortable. He looks up to see turquoise eyes frozen on his face. "What, do I know you?"

"No." Replies tall, dark, and handsome in a deliciously deep voice. "Have you been… following me?"

"What?" He says dumbly. What?! He can't have noticed. Neither of them has really moved the entire time Rin's been aware of his presence. Mikoshiba is probably thinking the same thing, and says, "He's probably just got good instincts. You know we can sniff out our kind like a hound. You're probably giving off a professional vibe, you know what I mean?"

Rin almost nods. But he doesn't, because that would be bad. Right. Less professional. Yamazaki is already tensing at his long pause.

Praying to the gay gods, he stammers, "S-sorry I just… um. You're really cute?" And it's not even an act, but Mikoshiba will never know.

The taller male looks momentarily confused, then does a bit of a double take. Hah. He probably didn't expect to be hit on in the middle of the work day on a sidewalk.

"Scan's done, he's lightly armed, and has some tech. Probably actually just came out for some air, I don't think he's going anywhere or being monitored." Mikoshiba informs.

"Oh my goooosh he IS cute!" Another voice chimes in from the background. Who let Kisumi into the control room?!

"Oh." The target says. "So you were pretending to read the paper?"

Rin gives him an offended face. "No, I was reading a very interesting article about swimming but then you rudely stepped your attractive self out of the building and distracted me."

"Oh my Jesus you're making Rin flirt with him?!" Kisumi's giggling floats through again, and Mikoshiba hushes him.

Just as Rin thinks he over played it, and he's going to die getting shot in the face while staring into Tahiti-beach-ocean-colored eyes, there's a tiny upward tilt of the lips and McGorgeous is saying, "Well, my bad then, Mr….?"

"You can call me Rin." Because for some reason he doesn't feel like giving him a fake name, and a real last name would be asking to get shot by Hydra while getting coffee tomorrow. He adds weakly, "Or, just. Call me."

Oh god. Someone shoot him. Kisumi is laughing very loudly again.

"I'm… Sousuke," Sousuke says, clearly very amused. "You know it's like 1 o'clock, and we're practically on Wall Street right?"

"Yeah actually. That's your fault. You could show up at a more convenient time and location for me to flirt with you." Rin sniffs indignantly.

Sousuke actually snorts, and Rin's pretty sure Kisumi is watching his vitals spike and eating popcorn. "Are you asking me to come back another time?"

Rin shrugs. "You could. Or we could just run away together right now."

Sousuke sighs, glancing back to where he had stood, talking on the phone. "I wish." He groans huskily.

Rin grins at him wildly, and with a rush of adrenaline, grabs Sousuke's right hand (to make it harder for him to shoot Rin for invading his space) and runs. "Come on, Sousuke. Carpe diem!"

The taller male makes an unmanly yelping sound and allows himself to be yanked along, putting up just enough struggle to have Rin laughing and tugging at him the whole way down the block.

"Are you having fun, Agent Matsuoka?" Mikoshiba asks dryly.

"Come on, come on!" Rin pants breathlessly through his grins, dashing down the streets with Sousuke on his heels. He's floating on the rush of pulling a stunt like that, because Sousuke could figure it out any second. He doesn't think about what comes after. His only job is to get the target into the SHIELD vehicle, and he focuses on planning that out to a T.

They round the corner, and there it is. Rin's got it all figure out. He stops abruptly, causing Sousuke to almost crash into him.

"Sorry, Sorry." Both of them apologise, laughing and panting.

Rin yanks the door open and motions for Sousuke to climb in the black Land Rover. Sousuke looks at him and quirks an eyebrow, probably unwilling to get into an unknown car.

"What?" Rin asks and looks inside. "It's just my chauffeur. Rei, you won't tell anyone, right? Especially not my dad."

Rei nods and pushes up his glasses, recognising what Rin is trying to play. "Of course, Young Master."

Sousuke seems to buy it, since he climbs in. Or maybe he just thinks he can take both of them. Rin smiles toothily and follows him, then the door automatically slides shut with a resounding click.

"So, what are you? Like a rich spoiled kid running away from home for an afternoon to be rebellious?" Sousuke asks.

Rin smiles crookedly, and bats his eyes. "Something like that. Is that not your thing?"

Sousuke stares at his face for a few seconds. "Fuck," He climbs over the middle seat and gets disorientingly close, and practically breathes into Rin mouth, "You are definitely my thing."

"Seatbelts…" Rei reminds distantly.

"Seatbelts are for the weak, Rei."

Rei sighs fondly, perfectly in character because he basically is that character. "Spoiled brat."

The line is thankfully silent in his ear. Kisumi is either holding his breath or has been kicked out of the room. Rin reaches up and trails his fingers up Sousuke's clothed chest, shivering when he feels the sharp definition of muscles beneath. Sousuke lets out a sharp breath, and wraps both his hands lightly under Rin's jaws. Except his hands are so fucking huge that it almost goes all the way around Rin's neck from his chin to the base of his skull. The vulnerable position is both terrifying and electrifying. He's sure Sousuke can feel his skin heating up, and his speeding pulse on his jugular. Good. That's in character. That'll sell.

Sousuke finally lets out a soft growl and leans in to kiss Rin, fierce and hungry, pressing Rin's head right against the seat. Rin barely stops himself from loosing a needy whine into the bigger man's mouth, but it comes out as a choked moan. Sousuke seems to approve, and shoves a hot tongue into Rin's mouth. Rin groans and devours it hungrily.

He's sure Rei is extremely uncomfortable, but jesus is this hot. He also hopes they aren't going to leave him hanging and actually have sex in the SHIELD car with 5 different people watching and listening. He didn't expect Sousuke to suddenly freeze, then crumple onto him, out cold.

"What the-" He spin around, and Haru waves at him, crouched in all black behind their seats.

"Dendrotoxin." Haru explains helpfully as he pulls the heavy body off of Rin.

Rin gapes.

"Why didn't anyone tell me this was part of the plan?" Rin demanded, resisting the urge to pull Sousuke back and claim his property. That would be silly.

"Vitals look good." Haru reports into the com calmly, checking a creepily frozen Sousuke.

"Good job, guys." Mikoshiba finally comes back on.

"Oh my god, you were silent because you didn't want me to know you were gonna ice him."

"Well, if I told you, you wouldn't have done your job so well."

"I also wouldn't be able to say that someone's gotten shot with an icer while making out with me. How am I gonna pick up boys now?" Rin complains.

"Well, hopefully, you'll be seeing a lot more of that boy, if things go to plan A."

"What's Plan A?" Rin asks curiously.

"That's classified."

* * *

 **A/N: Wait what's that down ther-**

 **Oh it's the review box! :DDDDD *wink wink nudge nudge***


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary: Kisumi is great at negotiating.**

 **A/N: SouKisu flirting and not much Sourin interaction... I promise the next chapter will actually have Sourin in the same room!**

* * *

"Hey, I'm trying to be civil. Look, I'm sorry it has to be like this but… We really had no other choice."

Sousuke stares. Seijuurou stares.

Sousuke blinks. Seijuurou sighs.

"Fine. Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you. You did this to yourself."

With that, he heaves himself up from the chair and turns the barrier opaque again with a press of a button. Sousuke sits alone in silence, staring at the eerily artificial blank white wall that had just been completely transparent. He had woken up in this same state about an hour ago and didn't have to wait long before the tall, orange-haired male had appeared on the other side of the barrier.

Sousuke didn't say a word, opting to study the other and mull over his options instead. He wonders if he's fucked himself over and they're going to bring in the torture contraption now, having failed at negotiating.

Not more than 15 minutes later, the whiteness is replaced by the illusion of nothing again, but when Sousuke had touched it last time, it was 100% solid, and a grid rippled away from the point of contact. Techy.

This time, there is no stern looking agent. It's a catty young man, probably not much older than himself, and he's got ridiculous pink fluffy hair like he walked out of the land of fluffy rainbow bunnies and unicorns. Knowing SHIELD, that's not a far-fetched guess.

And lilac eyes. Wow.

He's standing very close to the… Glass thing. And smiling at Sousuke. It's slightly unsettling, and Sousuke doesn't know why.

"So," He says by way of greeting, "Not feeling chatty huh, big boy?"

Sousuke stares, for an entirely different reason than before. But that's for him to know and for nobody else to find out.

"Man, I can't believe you're Hydra." Fluffy-cloud-boy says to himself with a sigh. "Why are the hot ones always lacking in moral compass?"

Is he flirting with Sousuke? Did they send him in to flirt?

He pulls up the chair right in front of Sousuke's cage thing, and sits all sprawled on it. "I'm Kisumi, by the way. You've met our commander right? Mikoshiba Seijuurou. What do you think? Would you do him? I'd prolly do him if he was less straight. He's pretty hunky. But…" Kisumi leans forward, grinning crookedly, "Not like you. Hot damn son. Lucky for me, you don't seem all that straight hm?"

Sousuke keeps a straight face through the entire thing because he is the boss at keeping straight faces. Except then he remembers Rin, who was with him at the last point he remembers being conscious, which is why Kisumi would know about his straightness, or lack thereof. Is Rin one of them? Can't be a coincidence right?

His face must twitch a little, because Kisumi suddenly looks very pleased with himself – more so than he already did anyway.

"So, you're into that type huh? Don't blame ya. That one's like, walking sex. Walking angry sex." Kisumi nods to himself as he rants, "Who knows? Maybe he'll let me have a taste. What do you think?"

Sousuke has given up the straight-face-game and scowls at Kisumi.

Kisumi laughs. "Not into sharing, huh?"

So is Rin not Shield? But they might want him to think that.

"By the way," Kisumi chatters as he picks up his phone and checks himself out in it, "I really don't have orders, Sei just sent me in to babysit and nag, so this is basically like a sleepover."

Sousuke scowls more.

"Except no touching of course. He said I'll have to do my own nails and braid my own hair, but at least I can still talk about boys and things right? I could talk about girls too, if you want?"

And no, Sousuke really does not want. He would like for Kisumi to shut the fuck up. But also possibly drop a few more clues on what's going on with Rin because Sousuke finds himself kind of interested in knowing. He's probably here somewhere, though Sousuke can't say what he's doing. Kisumi doesn't seem the least bit deterred by his silence.

"Ok, let's play party games then.." He says, bouncing up suddenly to turn the chair around until he's straddling it, chin lazily perched on the back, "How about we trade off questions? I get to ask you a question, and if you answer, you'll get to ask me a question. No lying though, ok?"

Sousuke doesn't respond.

"Since I'm a super nice person, I'll let you start. Got any questions? Really, now's your chance. I've got plenty to say if you don't wanna play, but really nothing important that you'll be interested in, I'm sure."

God, he's annoying. This is a lose-lose situation here. Well-played, Mikoshiba. Well-played.

"No? Ok then, I can wait. Can't lie, the silent brooding thing really suits you. It's pretty hot." Kisumi practically purrs, looking completely at ease slung over that chair. "I know I'm not all fierce and … Bitey and pointy but, you gotta be checking me out to some degree, right? No one can resist my gorgeous locks."

Sousuke registers that he must still be talking about Rin, but can't tell if he's joking or seriously narcissistic. Although, Sousuke can't deny the truth in his claims. To he perfectly fair, Kisumi is nothing short of alluring, even if it's almost to a degree of ridiculousness. Under different circumstances, Sousuke would totally think about hitting that. However, Sousuke is most definitely not thinking about hitting that. (Does thinking about NOT hitting that also mean he IS thinking about hitting that, by proxy? Does he have pink pubes?)

Not 10 minutes into Kisumi's endless outpouring of obnoxious chatter, Sousuke caves. Mostly because what could be the worst thing an organisation like this even do to him? Their best negotiator has just spent 5 minutes telling Sousuke about his mother's cat.

"What do you want from me." Sousuke's voice is a bit smoky from disuse and a slightly dry throat, but he manages to make it sound as threatening as possible.

Kisumi stops in the middle of a word and gapes for half a second.

"Oooh it speaks." He whispers.

Sousuke is unimpressed.

"Well, babe, it's simple." He transitions smoothly, waving a hand around animatedly, "We don't want you to do bad things for Hydra, and also we don't want hydra to do bad things to you. And maybe you could do good things for Shield. But you'll find about that later. If you're good. Ready to answer a question?"

Sousuke frowns. "Depends."

Kisumi grins. "Sure. What do you know about the Hatch Project?"

Sousuke contemplates staying silent, but there are suddenly things he wants to know. "Just the name. I received orders to act as overseer for a component of it. Never found out more since then. What do you know about it?"

Kisumi grimaces, serious for once. "We're pretty sure Hydra is planning on combining the Russian stint and Whitehall's hypnotism thing on kids. Children. They'll put up no fight so they can be converted in bulk. It's… Nasty."

Sousuke stares a bit. He's done some shit in the past for Hydra and never batted an eyelash, but thinking about kidnapping and brainwashing kids… He's kind of glad he's stuck in Shield containment at the moment. Of course, they could be lying.

"You better not be lying."

"I wouldn't!" Kisumi holds up his hands defensively. "I swear, honestly. Our new tech guy is amazing. He's broken into Hydra intel further than even Hydra operatives like yourself can reach. Anyways, my turn. What were you doing with the redhead? Rin?"

Sousuke eyes him suspiciously. "You don't know? He's not one of you?"

Kisumi raps the glass sternly. "My question."

Sousuke huffs. In a manly way of course. "We ran into each other. He was cute. He hit on me. I was ticked off so we um. Decided to go somewhere. Together. I think."

Now that he thinks about it, he really has no clear understanding or explanation of what he was doing with Rin, really. Was he that strung out? It was a call regarding the Hatch Project, actually.

"Ahh, so it's a fling? Spur of the moment? Elopement? Cute." Kisumi grins foxily. "So. He wasn't lying when he said he didn't know anything about you."

Sousuke frowns. "What did you do to him?"

"Relax your pretty self. Do you really think I would hurt that cutie? He was actually very cooperative, unlike you." Kisumi crosses his arms, affronted. "Honestly. That's like slander. Also that counts as your question."

Sousuke eyes him critically. "I doubt you're the only one who does things around here."

"I get it. You think I'm cute and fluffy," Kisumi looks rather pleased with himself despite his scolding tone, "And Mikoshiba and whoever else might play it rough right? But do you honestly think he's getting rougher treatment than you?"

Sousuke narrows his eyes. "Whatever."

"Aw. Now you're gonna pretend like you weren't a little bit worried. That's cute."

Kisumi gets a glare for his troubles. "So. Now down to the real business. See, you actually seem like an OK guy who got thrown into the fray with Hydra as a kid, just like all of those kids who will be forcefully pulled into hydra. So, we thought maybe you could use a chance to turn your life around. Perhaps."

Sousuke is taken aback. If you told him yesterday that Shield was going to kidnap him and ask him to join, he would have laughed and told you to get lost. "I… What? Why me?"

"Yamazaki." Kisumi is suddenly straight-faced and thoughtful, a complete 180 inside-out attitude from before. "There's even more you don't know. That even Hydra doesn't know. About you. But we won't disclose that until we're sure you're committed to our cause. Also, until you make a decision, we will be holding Rin. Separately from you of course."

"What, like a hostage? I barely know the guy."

"That's just how it is." Kisumi shrugs and cuffs the chair-back with a palm with finality. "Think about it."

Sousuke watches him get up to leave, pulling the chair back to its original place. The initial absurdity of the request wears off, and he realises that this is probably the exact thing he's been waiting for, laying awake in his bed at 3 AM, fingers brushing the barrel of his handgun. He had abstractly wanted all the chaotic inner and outer struggles to stop as he's stuck in a limbo of half-in half-out of Hydra. Kisumi had hit the nail right on the head before; Sousuke had been thrown into the fray at a young age without warning or preparation, with strange meetings and a gun shoved into his hand, his father's hand clapping his shoulder heavily. And this new thing… The Hatch Project wasn't something he could just ignore or do as routine. He was going to suffer through it in one of way or another.

He lifts his line of sight just as Kisumi's finger goes for the button. The thought of Rin fleets across his mind for a split second, before he shoots straight up, knocking his chair over and startling Kisumi.

"I'll do it."

* * *

Cheers erupt as soon as the door is closed behind Kisumi, who smiles a pleased smile.

"Don't get ahead of yourselves," Seijuurou warns, "He's still gotta pass a psych eval before we should even let him out of containment. He's Hydra. Things are never straight forward with them."

"Aw, but Sei-chan he's so cute! He was all worried about the little kiddies and Rin-chan!"

"Nagisa, don't call everyone childish names." Rei coughs, pushing at his glasses.

"More importantly," Rin interrupts, "When is he supposed to find out I'm not actually some random bystander?"

"Oh Rin-chan you could never be a random bystander in his heart!" Nagisa whisper-exclaims parenthetically.

Rin ignores him.

Sei looks at Makoto, who smiles and shrugs.

"It doesn't really matter anymore, so whenever you feel like is fine. We just needed… To see if he would toss you under the bus or have any concern. Looking at his vitals monitors, I'd say he passed." Makoto holds up the pad with the readings from various monitors set up in the room and on Sousuke's clothes.

Sei nods. "Seems legit."

Nagisa twirls. Kisumi grins at Rin slyly.

Rin glares back. "That flirting was all you, remember that. You do not get to tease me anymore."

"Kisumi flirts with everyone, Rin." Haru points out blankly.

"You shot him." Rin retorts.

Haru nods. And then looks at Makoto. Makoto scratches his head sheepishly.

Nagisa puts his hands in a whisper position around his mouth and says in a Haru voice, "Makoto, did you really have to make me watch Kisumi get overly sexual again? You know I think it's obnoxious"~ – then in Makoto's smiley laid back way of talking, "Ahhh haha sorry Haru! I'll make it up to you!"

Mostly everyone snickers. Kisumi sniffs and points at the screen showing the live video footage of Sousuke pacing around.

"Look at him, he's delicious. Rin knows, right?"

"Don't talk to me, Kisumi."

Kisumi whispers to Nagisa, "Rin-baby is just jealous."

Nagisa nods enthusiastically.

Rin narrows his eyes at them dangerously.

It's a good day, all in all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary: Sousuke joins the team, and there's a bit friction of the uncomfortable variety.**

* * *

"Hey." Rin says, hands stuck in his pockets stiffly, shoulders hunched up like he's trying to crawl into himself. He stands in the relative darkness and squints into the fluorescently lit cell of sorts.

"Hey yourself." Sousuke quips, sitting on the floor against the far wall, an arm slung easily over one bent knee. The entertainment pad he's bee

n provided with sits on the other leg, momentarily forgotten.

"So..." Rin looks around awkwardly, ignoring the chair to stand facing Sousuke. "You're stuck in here huh?"

"Yeah. I'm dangerous and all. Could be worse though." He gestures at the entertainment pad offhandedly. "They finally let you come down to this dungeon?"

"Um. Yeah," Rin clears his throat, "Yeah. Even though you haven't been cleared... For things. Yet."

 _Things._ Nice one Rin.

Sousuke nods with slight hesitation. "And... You know. I'm sorry."

"For- for what?" Rin wheezes.

Sousuke gives him a weird look. "You know. Getting you stuck here. Was probably my fault."

Rin barks a stuttered laugh, because oh shit, what does he even say?

"Um, no. Actually." he laughs nervously again, hands still clutching the inside of his pockets for dear life, "It's not. Funny story."

"...Oh."

The faint ghost of surprise flits over Sousuke's face. It could just be the weird light and he's known all along. There's silence again, and Sousuke definitely watches Rin a bit harder when he squirms.

"For the record!" Rin blurts out, "I'm not sorry or anything. I was just doing my job."

He sniffs defensively, tamping down the feeling of guilt. It's not like he wanted to trick Sousuke into thinking whatever he's thinking.

"Oh." Sousuke says again, face wiped blank of anything he might have shown before. "I get it. You don't owe me anything."

Rin looks away. Gosh, why is he even here? The atmosphere has thickened to pudding, and there's definitely at least 10% that's residual sexual tension because every time he looks at Sousuke, all he can think about is how he smelled like sharp pine and tasted like boy.

Ok, maybe more like 25%.

Sousuke seems unfazed as he looks back down and swipes the screen once.

"Well... I just. Thought I'd tell you that. So you don't..." Rin tapers off before he could say "worry" or "beat yourself up over it".

Sousuke looks up, and says "Well thanks" in an unimpressed tone, and the bite of it almost makes Rin flinch.

Rin turns tail and flees with grace back up the stairs, not even bothering to switch the settings of the transparent wall.

Everyone pretends like they hadn't just watched the entire awkward exchange and proceeds to go about their excessively normal conversation-making with Rin the rest of the day. Honestly, when you're secret agents, talking about nothing but sports teams and weather is probably the most not-normal thing you can do.

It was probably Rei's idea or something.

The next day, Sei sends Rin out on an errand because Rei is running out of some obscure weapons material. It's most likely to keep him busy, but of course he suits up in his customary all black, and high-tails it out of there. With all the lingering awkwardness of yesterday, he was really looking forward to some alone time, and deal with people only when he gets to intimidate the shit out of them.

The exchange goes smoothly, as it always does if you look scarier than everyone else. Sei thinks Rin is always the best to send because of his sharp teeth. Rin is pretty proud of that.

By the time he strolls back to the base (through that nice barber shop up top), he's in a significantly better mood.

He doesn't even realize he's been humming until he turns the corner into the lockers and stops so suddenly he almost trips, tune dying in his throat.

Sousuke looks up. "Sorry. Didn't mean to startle you."

"I- You got cleared." Rin coughs, smoothly covering up his mishap. Smoothly.

"Oh. Uh, yeah. Unexpected huh?"

Rin nods dumbly before he could think about it.

Sousuke smiles a tiny but, and it's wry. "I guess I'm just not as good at my job as you are at yours."

With that, he shuts the open locker, and brushes past Rin with a nod of the head. It leaves Rin baffled, blinking after the disappeared figure.

"What just happened?" He mutters to himself, pulling his locker open with too much force and cringing at the loud ricochet of the clangy door.

* * *

"So I really hope someone else covered this scenario because I certainly didn't."

"Relax, Rin. We all know you're not the brains of the operation."

"Haru, I will fuck you up."

Makoto laugh-sighs. "Guys, I think you should let captain speak now, since we have a guest and everything, right?"

Rei smiles ruefully. "Tachibana, you make this sound like a tea party."

"Eh?" Makoto blinks owlishly at Rei.

Haru touches Makoto's elbow delicately with the tips of his slender fingers. "Rei doesn't think Yamazaki is a guest."

Rei adjusts his glasses, looking away.

Sousuke sits down on a desk with crossed arms. "Hey, I get it, ok? It's not like you guys are thrilled to have me here. I didn't exactly sign up to get kidnapped and make things all complicated either. But since we're doing this, how about you quit mucking around already?"

Nagisa chooses the tense moment right then to bounce into the room. "It's ok Sou-chan, they're just nervous around you because you're so big and sulky looking, right, Haru-chan?"

"Don't 'Haru-chan' me." Haru says flatly to Nagisa before turning a chilly gaze to Sousuke, "Why don't you ask Rin instead."

"Oh my god, just shut up and let Sei talk." Rin growls, smacking himself in the forehead.

Both Haru and Nagisa shoot him a knowing look. Rin pointedly ignores them.

"So, here's the situation. Hydra is currently in between 'pissed at Yamazaki for choosing to be out of contact', and 'pissed at whoever killed him'. They contacted him yesterday with instructions to move out some troops to initiate the Hatch Project. So, we're going to tell daddy dearest that sonny is going through a rebellious phase and don't want any hydra toy soldiers."

When Rin finally chances a glance at Sousuke, he's turned away, scowling at Mikoshiba's word choice. So, Rin indulges a bit because he hasn't actually looked at the guy for more than half a second recently.

The Sousuke he first met seems like a strange dream at this point. This Sousuke is all placid roughness, wary candour, guarded edges. Who was it that allowed himself to be swept along on a whim of a stranger, and who had first regarded Rin with a bemused gaze?

He's snapped out of the reverie by Kisumi's knowing stare accompanied by a coy smirk. Rin casually flips him the bird and stares him down until Kisumi looks away, hiding a smile.

"Matsuoka." Mikoshiba claps twice.

Rin blinks.

"Were you even listening?"

"Yeah. Ish. We play pretend hydra. Or something."

Mikoshiba sighs. Sousuke glances at Rin with an unreadable expression.

It's not until later that Rin gives it any thought. He's packing his bigger guns away in the weapons store room when he notices Sousuke's silent looming prescence in the doorway.

He gives the guy a vague nod. Sousuke takes that as a cue to enter the room and stand uncomfortably close. Rin straightens and leans away to look up at the taller.

A few heartbeats pass in tense silence, and just as Rin was about to ask what he wanted, he jabs Rin in the chest with the knuckles of his fingers, firmly but without malice.

"Listen up, _princess_." He rumbles quietly with a hint of a sneer, "Just because everyone else here tolerates your lack of focus doesn't mean I will. I don't like teamwork, but it looks like I don't have a choice in this one. Even more so, I don't want to die because of someone else's fuck up. Namely yours. So, if you don't feel like taking this seriously, I suggest you sit this one out."

Rin stares, bewildered. "What the fuck? Who do you think you are to-"

"If you're not comfortable working with someone born and raised as _Hydra_ , then don't fucking go on this mission." He interrupts, "I don't need to worry about whether or not you've got my back, or if you're actually going to shoot me in it when I'm not looking."

"What?" Rin growls. "Why the hell do you think _I'm_ the one you need to worry about? I'm the one who should be worried about _you_ shooting me in the back."

"Exactly." Sousuke says with hard eyes. "If you don't trust me, then don't. Fucking. Come."

With that, Sousuke turns on his heels and stalks back out the door.

"Bastard!" Rin yells after his retreating footsteps.

"Seriously. What the hell is wrong with him? Haru actually shoots him in the back and I'm the one he calls a cowardly traitorous slacker?" He mutters to himself, throwing the guns he'd just taken out of his bag back into it with considerably more force than absolutely necessary.

"Rin. Those are the wrong ones."

Rin jumps and twists his head. It's Haru, giving him a calm tilted look.

"No they're not." Rin retaliates lamely.

Haru is impassive as usual, and points to his own concealed icers.

"Ok but," Rin fumbles, "what kind of merc doesn't carry around flashy weapons? I'm just trying to look the part."

"If you say so." Haru deadpans. He wanders closer and stops by Rin's side. "But Sousuke will definitely just going to think you're trying off him with pure fire power."

Rin splutters. "Well, you've already proven that he's not that hard to 'off', so clearly that would be a ridiculous assumption."

Haru remains impassive, and merely continues off-handedly, "Does it bother you so much that we're working with him?"

"No," Rin blinks, surprised, "not any more than it bothers everyone else. Why would you think that?"

Haru pins Rin with a long, pointed look. "I don't think that, but clearly Sousuke does." And adds, "Makoto says so."

Before Rin has a chance to process his words, Haru drifts out of the room without transition. Rin, unable to understand what he did to get this kind of persecution from literally everyone, continues to hear these words in his head as he completes mundane tasks in preparation for the mission.

-2 hours later-

"Well, screw him!" Rin cries angrily, and with finality, suddenly throwing down his book.

"Screw who now?" Kisumi asks innocently, popping his head in from the kitchen, chewing on a sandwich.

"You." Rin grumbles, flustered at his own outburst.

Kisumi wiggles his nice eyebrows.

Rin flips him off.


End file.
